Long Time Coming

 

We spent the winter in Norfolk, something we have decided NEVER to do again on the boat.  She did look good at Christmas though!

          

The onset of Covid19 has drastically changed the way we live & sail.

In the middle of May we took a couple of days and had a wonderful sail to Put in Creek off the East River in Mobjack Bay.  Did absolutely nothing but speak to friends on Five & Dime who anchored nearby.  Social Distancing. This with them pre Covid.

          

Back at the dock I returned to work at West Marine.  The company is doing all it can to keep its employees safe but man……there are some really clueless & stupid people out there.  It was not long before we decided we needed to get underway again.

July 12^th found us on the East River again.  It is so pretty there.  This time we anchored off the sailing school. Next onward to Fishing Bay.  It has been so long since we’ve cruised the Chesapeake that many places have changed dramatically & not necessarily for the better.  Too many McMansions. 

We ventured on to Wilton Creek where we had ridden out a tropical storm many years ago.  Again, many changes.  One of those changes was a condo complex with boat slips & there was Calypso.  The boat is owned by Jeff & Wendy who we got to know via the school supply drive for the children of Long Island Bahamas.  Great folks. They are responsible I believe for Rob & I being awarded the SSCA Clean Wake Award for the work for the kids.  It’s not us, it’s the boaters who make it work.  All we do is facilitate.

                                                

They rowed out in their dink & we had a nice socially distant visit.  They had plans for the evening which was fine by us.  The next morning as we made ready to leave Rob turned the key & nothing.  After much checking he found that the fuse to the engine had blown.  Not a good thing.  Thankfully Jeff was able to get a new one for us & it’s been fine since.

          Dscf3668 2019 LI Schools

More great sailing from the Severn River to the Ware River & then back to Cobb’s.  It was a great kind of shake down but after a few days at the dock we were ready to leave again.

I didn’t mention the garden!  In the spring Rob asked John Cobb if we could put in a garden.  John did one better.  He took an old work boat & set it on pilings and drilled holes in the bottom for drainage.  Rob then added rocks & “mushroom blend” soil as recommended by Julie Cobb and we were ready to plant.  Julie had taken me to some of her favorite places for plants.  We ended up planting basil, parsley, chives, sage as well as mint & chocolate mint.  And that is just the herbs!  Squash, 2 types of cucumber, 3 types of tomatoes, green beans, pole beans, 2 types of lettuce, radish & lavender too.  A nor’easter almost killed everything about a week after planting but it all came back except the rosemary.  One of our dockmates, Lee, gave us the seeds for the green beans.  The variety is called Jade & they are wonderful!  Thanks Lee!  We ended up with several large planters as well as the “Roseboat” garden.  We picked as much as we could & told the folks at the marina to enjoy!  Maybe there will be some tomatoes left but we may miss it.

After less than a week at the dock it was time to leave again.  The Covid19 virus is spiking again & people have this “it can’t happen to me” attitude.  Even people we care about seem to think they are invincible.  If they want to think that way there is nothing we can say or do about it but we can stay away from them.

We left on the 23^rd of July back to the East River (a great anchorage) then on to Anti Poison Creek.  Look up the history of how it got its’ name.  Quite interesting.  We decided to take our new dink (we finally got a RIB to go with the outboard purchased during our last trip to the Bahamas) out for an explore.  There were lots of small rays on Anti Poison.  I stopped counting at 40.  Next onto Mill Creek off of the Great Wicomico where we encountered even more rays.

A few years back there was a push for local restaurants to put them on the menu.  They really are quite tasty but it never seemed to catch on.

We ventured into Reedville on a Tuesday but everything was closed.  Everything.  No grocery in walking distance, no cafes, no ice cream shops, nothing.  It appears that Reedville is only open for business Thursday through Sunday.  We moved the big boat around to Sandy Point to avoid the menhaden processing plant and settled in for a spectacular lightening show!  It was literally all around us but for all of that we had very little wind & rain

Next, we went to Crisfield, MD another place we have not seen in may years.  While we did get off the boat for a walk & the dink fee included showers & such we did not go to any restaurants or such. Not really comfortable with that yet. 

It seems there may be a hurricane heading our way so we decided to head to the western side of the bay and see what happens.  By the time it arrives in Maryland it should be no more than a rain event.

That’s it for August.

Winter is coming...... We were hoping to toss lines after our short hall but it seems Mother Nature may have other plans.  The remnants of Hurricane Sally may make too nasty.  We just hope to be ready.